Half GCSE pupils fail to get grades employers want

Not good enough: Half of pupils struggled to get the grades employers want

Less than half of GCSE students in London achieved the grades required by employers last summer.

The latest league tables reveal that out of 74,000 students who took their exams in the capital, almost 39,000 failed to get a C grade or higher in five subjects including English and maths - the minimum wanted by many businesses.

The Confederation of British Industry says it is a "scandal" that more than half of school leavers finish school at 16 without Cs in English and maths.

State and private sector heads said the league tables - derived from data published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families - were meaningless, as they encouraged comprehensives to put pupils in for easier subjects in order to climb the rankings.

At the same time, some private schools were sent to the foot of the league table because they use International GCSEs, which have not been approved by ministers.

The exam is modelled on the O-level and is widely seen as more difficult than GCSEs. But the Government's refusal to recognise the IGCSE in the tables meant that private schools including Eton, Harrow, St Paul's and Dulwich College are listed as scoring "zero" on the five A* to C-grade indicator.

The headteacher of London's leading school today called for a shake-up.

John Marincowitz, head of Queen Elizabeth's School in Barnet, the boys' grammar which tops the London table, urged ministers to drop their opposition to state schools setting the IGCSE.

Dr Marincowitz said: "We achieved these results with the richest of academic diets available to us in the state sector. I have to admit that I do regret that state schools aren't allowed to do the IGCSE. We would consider them very seriously if we were allowed to do so."

Geoff Lucas, secretary of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, the group of Britain's top 250 academic private schools, said: "The DCSF and government should be ashamed of issuing tables which falsify the truth in such an underhand way."

Nationally, more than 300,000 teenagers left school without a good grounding in the three Rs last year.

More than 500,000 children are in 639 schools that are failing to meet the Government's target that no less than 30 per cent of pupils should achieve five A* to Cs.

Schools minister Jim Knight said failing schools would face closure, conversion to city academy status, or merger with more successful neighbours. But 26 of the existing academies were among the 639 schools failing to meet the five A* to C target. Seventeen of the 40 academies reporting GCSE results were among the worst 200 state schools in England.

Overall, 46.7 per cent of the 649,000 pupils in Year 11 scored five C grades or better in subjects including maths and English last year. In London, the proportion was slightly above the national average, at 47.9 per cent.

London schools minister Lord Adonis insisted the "vast majority" of London schools were improving every year.